Hi all,

I interpret manopubba.ngama, when qualifying dhammaa (cf. A I 10), as a
possessive compound, roughly "having mano as the thing that preceedes"
(hence preceeded by or conditioned by something), like manoset.t.haa (cf.
Dhammapada 1.1). The next question is, how is pubba.nga in itself to be
interpreted? The problem is the nasal /.n/. There are no precedents in
Sanskrit and the commentators' glosses suggest interpreting the compound as
going as the first thing/person (cf. the use of pubba.ngamo to qualify
people who take the lead, are first in line with respect to this or that).
The alternative would be to interpet pubba.n as an adverb qualifying gama in
the sense walking before, in front, cf. Sanskrit puroga, purogama. This is
the solution I prefer.

With best regards,

Ole Pind





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Sendt: 9. oktober 2005 11:08
Til: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Emne: [Pali] pubba"ngama [Re: Pali Day by Day E028 (Ex8B)]

Hi Rene and group,

I think Perniola is right about this somewhat odd and difficult compound.
Your reasoning about it being a tp3 makes sense from the point of view of
the English rendering "mind-preceded", but this English rendering distorts
the way the Pali works. It's a useful distortion, because it sounds better
in English and doesn't harm the sense, but it does change the original
syntax (because 'preceded' is a past participle, which naturally supports an
agent in the instrumental case).

The best that I can understand 'pubba"ngama' is that is means "preceding"
"going before" rather than "preceded" or "gone before". And as an adjective
it can stand alone as a noun meaning "a preceding thing" "something going
before". So the whole compound mano-pubba"ngama means "a preceding thing
which is mind". Therefore in the context I would read the whole compund as a
bahuvriihi, awkwardly and literally: dhammas have preceding-things which are
mind. You can see why translators chose to distort it a little.

So looked at in terms of its internal structure, mano-pubba"ngama, would
indeed be a kammadhaaraya. Looked at in terms of its context in the sentence
it's a bahuvriihi. I hope someone will correct me here if I'm wrong.

This reading of pubba"ngama looks to me to be supported by the commentary,
which glosses pubba"ngama with pa.thama-gaamin "first going" "previously
going".
Dhp-a I, 22 (PED). Cakkhupaalatheravatthu 1, at first verse (Sinh etc).

The entire phrase is as follows:

pubba"ngamaa ti tena pa.thamagaaminaa hutvaa samanaagataa.

I'm not sure what the syntax of the commentarial phrase is trying to say
exactly. One thing I'm fairly sure of is that this commentarial phrase is
condensed: for instance apart from the choice of instrumental form
pa.thamagaaminaa expressing something (probably connected to samanaagataa)
the word is simultaneously also glossing the cited word (irrespective of the
instrumental case here) in a parallel breakdown of the compound: pubba =
pa.thama, gama=gaamin.

Any help with this would be appreciated.

best regards,

/Rett

>
> > Yesterday, I was looking at the opening words of Dhammapada verse 1,
> > known to so many: "manopubba.ngamaa dhammaa." = mano + pubba [n] +
> > gamaa / dhammaa, in the nominative plural. According to one writer
> > (Perniola/170), the first part is a kammadhaaraya cpd: a noun (mano)
> > + an adj. (pubba.ngama) = "mind-preceded." According to him, the
> > whole cpd. is then turned into an adj. agreeing with dhammaa. Thus:
> > "Mind-preceded [are] dhammaa." I would have thought of a tappurisa
> > of the instrumental kind, as is sometimes translated into English:
> > "Preceded BY mind are dhammaa." But then I suppose the Paali would
> > be: "manasaa pubba.ngamaa dhammaa." I'm pretty new to compounds, so
> > does this all make sense?-- Rene

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